User:Mcstratton/sandbox

Possible Articles
I was looking at many possible articles to improve. Some of the articles I looked at were connected to Islamic architecture, such as Multifoil arch, and Mocárabe. Another article I had looked at was Byzantine architecture.

Article Selected
Tracery

I plan to expand this lead section, for example adding a brief history, or other important information that introduces the subject to the reader.

In architecture, tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out. There are two main types, plate tracery and the later bar tracery. The evolving style from Romanesque to Gothic architecture and changing features, like the thinning of lateral walls and enlarging of windows lead to the innovation of tracery. The earliest form of tracery, called plate tracery, began as openings that were pierced from a stone slab. Bar tracery was then implemented, having derived from the plate tracery. However instead of a slab, the windows were defined by molded stone mullions which were lighter and allowed for more openings and intricate designs. Other notable styles of tracery to follow include geometrical tracery and curvilinear (flowing) tracery.

Geometrical tracery
Geometrical tracery is identified by the circular openings at the head of the arch of the window. A common composition is three lights beneath two circles and a third at the point of the arch, such an example can be seen along the aisle at the Lincoln Cathedral in England. Also at the Lincoln Cathedral, the east window is an expanded version of this idea with two interior arches, a total of eight lower lights, four small circular lights topped with two larger circles to fill out the interior arches, and finally above all one large circular shape filled with seven smaller circular lights. Geometrical tracery, in its early stages, had a rule of equilateral law, where the tracery design follows the shape of the arch in an equilateral manor. Additional decorative elements can be implemented, such as foliation or the "spherical triangle". The use of spherical triangles is a later adaption and likely reflects religious significance.

Curvilinear (flowing) tracery
Starting in the late thirteenth century and at the beginning of the fourteenth century tracery took on more fluid characteristics and thusly was called flowing or curvilinear tracery. A common shape that was used in curvilinear tracery was that of the ogee, which was too weak for structural application and was instead used as a decorative element. The use of the ogee in curvilinear tracery can be seen in the west window of St. Mary's parish church in Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire. A secondary style considered related to curvilinear tracery is called reticulated tracery. Reticulated tracery fills the head of the arch with repeated forms creating the appearance of a net-like pattern.